1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
There are multiple ways that I assess my student's understanding and learning. I feel that a teacher needs to have various ways of assessing students in order to know what needs to be retaught and reviewed. As a teacher, I need to know exactly what my students are understanding on a subject I am teaching, so I can adjust my lesson plans accordingly. I use a variety of formal and informal assessments:
1) Exit Slips - This is a half sheet of paper that I pass out to students with about 10 minutes left of class. Not only is this a good way to close class, but I get to collect these half sheets of paper and assess my student's understanding of the concepts and topics we learned in class. The half slips generally have a couple questions on them, and one application or critical thinking question related to what we learned in class. These slips are not usually graded. If the slips they are, it is usually a class participation grade for the day. In order for students to leave class when the bell rings, the exit slip must be completed and returned to me. I like using this type of assessment because I can quickly glance at these exit slips, and determine what my students are understanding well, and what may need to be reviewed or retaught. I can also spot individual students who may be having trouble with a concept, and offer extra help. The exit slips are returned back to them promptly, usually by the next class so that the students also know if they are or are not understanding a concept.
2) Class Discussion/Questioning - Another informal way I assess student learning is during class discussions, class brainstorming, and class questioning activities. The way that I run my class discussions/questioning is that I usually randomly call on students. This way, every student must be paying attention and ready to participate. If they student is struggling, I give them sufficient wait time to think about the question. If they are still struggling, I try to re-phrase the question, or ask a more simple question to get them to come to the correct answer. Just by having a brief 10-15 minute class discussion, I am able to assess how much the class understands, or how much the class already knows about a topic/concept. I am also able to pinpoint those individual students who are struggling and may need extra help.
3) Homework - Another informal assessment that I use often, is to collect homework, and not only check it for completion and effort, but check it for understanding of the concept. If I feel like I need to assess my student's understanding on a topic/concept, I generally collect the homework and really analyze student responses and try to pinpoint any misconceptions the students might have.
4) In Class Activities/Labs - In class activities and labs give me a chance to assess student understanding in a practical, hands on way. Some students can show their understanding of a concept better through hand on experiments or activities. This is the very reason why I always try to have multiple class activities/labs that address the concepts I am trying to teach. If the students are working in groups, I am able to walk around the classroom, listen to the student discussion, guide students to understanding, and correct any misconceptions students are having about the concept.
5) Tests and quizzes - Formal assessments such as tests and quizzes, give me an overall class understanding at the end of a unit. Tests and quizzes give me a statistical analysis of my classroom and each individual student.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic. Concepts I am trying to assess in these assignments:The following are the individual concepts I wish to assess in the following informal and formal assessments. These assessments are apart a unit on Mendel and Meiosis. I want students to understand the difference between recessive and dominant traits. Also students need to be able to state the genotype of an organism, the phenotype of an organism, and the difference between the two. Students are introduced in this informal assessment to the concept of sex determination, and how the male ultimately determines the sex of the offspring. The concept of incomplete dominance is introduced and demonstrated in the traits of antennas, eye color, and body color. Student have had practice with punnet squares and must answer the "Wrapping it Up" questions by drawing out carious punnet squares and explaining them. Students use coin flipping and the concept of probability to answer follow up questions.
Recessive vs. Dominant Traits
Genotype vs. Phenotype
Sex Determination
Incomplete Dominance
Punnet Squares
Probability
What ideas to students need to understand before they can address the topics described above?
Students need to have a basic understanding of the following topics:
DNA and structure
Parent-offspring relationships
What misconceptions are students likely to have about these topics?
The following topics may cause student misconceptions:
Punnet squares and how to complete them
The difference between monohybrid and dihybrid.
The difference between phenotype vs. genotype.
Nature vs. Nurture in Natural Selection
What are the specific misconceptions that you anticipated? caw?
What phenomena and representations help students understand these topics?
Mendel's Pea plant experiments
Modeling punnet squares
How the genotype is expressed in the phenotype.
Modeling evolution through natural selection using the Galapagos Islands as an evolutionary example.
7a investigating how information is passed from parents to offspring by encoded molecules (e.g. evidence from electrophoresis, DNA fingerprinting).
7b investigating how the sorting and recombination of genes in sexual reproduction results in a great variety of possible gene combinations in the offspring of any two parents. (e.g. manipulate models to represent and predict genotypes and phenotypes, Punnett Squares, probability activities).
7aa distinguishing the stages of mitosis and meiosis and how each contributes to the production of offspring with varying traits
7bb researching and reporting on the contributions of key scientist in understanding evolution and natural selection (e .g. Darwin, Wallace, Mendel).
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
Design: The way this activity is designed, is to have students apply what they have learned already about Mendel, genotype vs. phenotype, dominant vs. recessive, punnet squares, and probability. They have learned about these concepts previously in class and in the PowerPoint notes. They were given all the necessary information to succeed during this informal assessment, they just needed to apply that knowledge. The activity is also designed to have the students do something kinetically. I believe that when you have a 90 minute class period, it is essential to let the students do something physically, like in this example, flip coins.
Instructions: The instructions for each worksheet are clearly described on each worksheet. To make sure students understood what they were doing, we did the first trait/coin flip together, which was "face shape". I had a student read each step aloud to the class, as I followed the directions and flipped the coin, and recorded my results on my data table, which was drawn on the white board. I made sure that the students not only understood the instructions, but that I modeled one trial to the students before they started. I think that modeling, as well as reading instructions aloud with my class, help my students to succeed and complete the activity in a timely manner. I use this technique very often with in-class activities and labs. The students had time in class to flip the coins and begin the "Wrapping It Up!" packet, which they were to finish for homework.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
Description: This is the test I created for Chapter 10: Mendel and Meiosis.
How it was assessed:
I graded the test using the answer key. Students got points taken off for incorrect answers. The maximum possible point value was 45. Therefore, the test was graded out of 45 possible points. Most questions were worth 1 point unless stated otherwise, like for example the short answer and critically thinking questions which were worth 5 points as noted.
Types of Items:
It consists of 10 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions using data given in a table, 10 matching definition questions, a blank dihybrid cross, 2 short answer questions, 1 critical thinking question, and a quick bonus question.
Concepts Included:
Recessive vs. Dominant Traits
Genotype vs. Phenotype
Sex Determination
Incomplete Dominance
Punnet Squares (both Monohybrid and Dihybrid Crosses)
Probability
Gregor Mendel and his laws and rules
Nondisjunction and Crossing Over
Meiosis and its phases
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
Where are your worked out answers to the questions at the end of the Mendalian activity and quiz?
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
Answer Key:
Assessment Features and Evaluation Criteria:
This assignment had a couple of parts that the students had to hand in. In total there were 3 parts, with the point values as follows:
MendALIEN drawing/model of the alien the student created (2 POINTS)
MendALIEN Genetics "Wrapping It Up" packet (13 POINTS)
TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS = 20
The informal assessment features include the use of a data table for students to record their coin flipping results. The features also include an art/design portion where the students have to illustrate or model their alien that they have created from gathering the coin flipping data. Many students were very creative and turned in huge alien posters, 3D clay/Styrofoam alien models, and cartoon aliens. This feature allowed students to show their creative side because I gave them the freedom to do whatever, as long as they represented all the alien traits. The students seemed to enjoy this feature of the assessment most. The final feature of the project (the "Wrapping It Up" packet) had students explaining the dominant and recessive trait, calculating the probability of certain outcomes, and creating monohybrid and dihybrid crosses.
The evaluation criteria that I used was an answer key (see below). The students got all the possible points on The Coin Flip Sheet and the Alien Drawing/Model, as long as it was completed and turned in on time. The "Wrapping It Up" packet was graded not only on completion, but also whether the students answered the questions correctly. Points were taken off for incorrect answers for this portion.
Depths of Knowledge: The Depths of Knowledge that are addressed in this assessment are Level 1: Recall and Reproduction, Level 2: Skills and Concept, and Level 3: Strategic Thinking. I especially feel that the "Wrapping It Up" packet has students strategically thinking. Questions 11-17 present the students with scenarios where they must take what they have learned so far, and not only apply it, but extent it farther to concepts that have no yet been addressed yet. In this "Wrapping It Up" packet, the students are being presented with recall/reproduction questions first, then skills/concept questions where they have to apply the skills and knowledge they have learned thus far, and finally strategic thinking questions at the end. This is done purposely to help scaffold the student's learning and help them reach and achieve high level thinking.
Scientifc Practice Related to Inquiry: When developing this informal assessment, I kept in mind the concept of inquiry. To help me do this, I followed the NECAP Guidelines for the Development of Inquiry Tasks. I found that this really helped me to stay on task in respect to inquiry based learning. This informal assessment as a whole directly relates to the NECAP Guidelines and ideas for inquiry tasks. For example, this assessment has students actively conducting investigations on probability, traits and alleles, sex determination of an organism. Before this activity, students have never introduced to the idea of sex determination. In fact, during an informal class discussion that I did to assess students' prior knowledge on these concepts, students did not know how the sex of an organism was determined, and did not know that the male determines the sex, and why this is so. This assessment has them investigate this concept of sex determination, come to conclusion the male determines the sex of the offspring, and why this is true. Students must analyze and collect their own data, which is another inquiry task. After doing so, students then have to make and describe observations, reguarding their data and why they recieved the results they did. Students then must apply this knowledge to various other senarios, to show their understanding of the concept.
Wasn't the Mendelian investigation developed/adapted by Mickey? If so, it seems strange to say you used the NECAP guidelines when developing this assessment. It is interesting that you consider this Punnet square lab as an investigation, since there is very little for students to "design" in this investigation. Do you think students remember much beyond flipping the coins? I agree that the "Wrapping Up" questions are a good way to gauge critical thinking, but your key suggests you have just basic expectations for students' answers.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10 For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
The formal assessment addresses all the concepts described in my answer to questions 4. The concepts and how they were addressed specifically in the formal assessment are as follows:
Recessive vs. Dominant Traits - multiple choice, short answer #2, critical thinking, and bonus question
Genotype vs. Phenotype - multiple choice, filling in of dyhybrid cross, short answer #2, and critical thinking question
Sex Determination - multiple choice
Punnet Squares (both Monohybrid and Dihybrid Crosses) - multiple choice, filling in of dihybrid cross, short answer #2, and critical thinking question
Probability - short answer #2, and critical thinking question
Gregor Mendel and his laws and rules - examining and answer questions about the table, short answer #1
Nondisjunction and Crossing Over - multiple choice, matching
Meiosis and its phases - multiple choice, examining and answer questions about the table, and matching questions
The formal assessment was designed to assess the students on the following Depths of Knowledge: Level 1: Recall and Reproduction, Level 2: Skills and Concept, and Level 3: Strategic Thinking. To do this, the assessment has different types of questions (multiple choice, matching, short answer, examining a table with data, and critical thinking questions). Because the assessment has a variety of questions, the students are assessed on these three Depths of Knowledge.
Learning Differences, Special Needs, Modifications, and Accommodations: Although I do not have any students with IEP's or special needs in my classroom, I do have a couple students with lower reading levels. To accommodate for this, if the student is having difficultly, I will read the question aloud to them, rephrase it if necessary, and/or underline key words in the question. I have found through experience that these techniques seem to help those students that are struggling. Also, I have some students that seem to take very long to take tests. A couple of my students sometimes need extra time to complete the test, which is completely fine. I do not want to rush any student. These students usually come after school or during advisory to complete their test. Also, I created two different versions of the test, with the questions rearranged, to eliminate cheating and to hold students accountable for their own learning.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
Using both informal and formal assessments help me learn about what my students understand about certain concepts. After correcting the informal assessment, I was able to see any misconceptions about the concept and specifically where some students were struggling. For example, after correcting the informal assessment, I was able to see that my students were having difficultly understanding the concept of sex determination. This is specifically seen in the student responses to question #11. To be honest, because this was the inquiry portion of this assessment, I was not surprised that some of the students did not understand this concept. About half of the class came to the conclusion that the father determines the sex of the offspring, because he can contribute either an X or Y to the gamete cell during meiosis, while the female can only contribute an X chromosome because she is XX. The other half of the class had either the complete wrong idea of why the father determines the sex, or just did not answer that question at all. As a teacher, it is my responsibilty to locate areas where students are struggling and reteach/review this information. Therefore, next class I made sure to clarify this specific topic and gave students a chance to ask questions about it. This is the whole idea behind informal assessments.
Good answer.
Using the formal assessment I was able to see that many students were struggling with setting up, completing, understanding, and applying dihybrid crosses to solve genetic senarioes. This was specifically seen in the last question, the critical thinking question, as well as the dihybrid cross, that was already set up and the students had to fill in. This is something that my students still need to learn.
Again using the formal assessment, I was able to see that many students understand the concept of haploid vs. diploid cells, which is a subtopic of miesois. Students demonstrated an overall high level of understanding of the concept of meiosis. Many students correctly answered questions about the phases of meiosis, gametes vs. body cells, and why meiosis maintains a constant number of chromosomes within a species. The types of questions the students answered correctly reguarding this concept were multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions. Understanding and explaining the concept of meiosis and how it relates to genetics, is an example of something my students can do now, that they could not do before.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
Characteristic - Gender
Overall Class Data = 26 Total Students: (out of a possible 45 pts)
Mean - 36.7 (81.6%)
High score - 47
Low score - 17
Female Class Data = 10 Female Students
Mean - 36.2 (80.4%)
High score - 45
Low score - 17
Male Class Data = 16 Total Students
Mean - 37 (82.0%)
High score - 47
Low score - 22
I was very interested to see if gender was a factor in this assessment. The overall class average was 81.6%. The female students average grade was a 80.4% and the male students average grade was a 82.0%. Because the female and male average grades are extremely close to the class average and not far apart from each other, I can pretty much conclude, that when it comes to specific assessment, no one specific gender group did significantly better than the other. In fact the female and male averages are almost exactly the same as the overall class average.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
One way that I involved students in self-assessment can be found in the "Wrapping It Up" packet. The students have to share their data with other students, as well as collect data from two other students and record their information. During this, I told students to assess their data and answers they have gathered so far. I told students they need to compare their data with other students data, and make sure they are completing the assessment correctly.
I do think that incorporating self-assessment more often into my lesson plans is something that I could improve upon. I believe that it is so important to hold students accountable for their own work and learning. By incorporating self-assessment and more self-monitoring strategies into my lesson plans, I can hold students more accountable for their own learning and success. Having students complete self-assessments, teaches students the skills they need to succeed not only in other subjects in school, but outside school and in life in general.
Self assessment is also an important skill related to metacognition.
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
The following are the objectives for the informal assessment, as well as the formal assessment:
Students will DIFFERENTIATE between monohybrid and dihybrid crosses
Students will make CONNECTIONS between the differences in ratios
Students will DETERMINE ratios for themselves given different types of crosses (homozygous/heterozygous
Students will DIFFERENTIATE between the phases of Meiosis given a picture or description of the phase.
Students will EXPLAIN the steps of meiosis
Students will CONNECT meiosis to Mendels theories
After anaylzing the multiple informal assessments and the formal assessment for this unit, I feel very confident that my students understand the concepts presents, because they have accomplished all the above objectives. The unit was designed to have multiple activities that present, explain, and have the students show their understanding of each concept. Therefore, the students have had multiple activities that address each concept. The students have seen each concept explained or presented in multiple ways to differentiate instruction and ensure that every student learns the material. Overall, I feel that the assessments show that my students have learned and accomplished the above objectives. My objectives and student learning directly relate to each other.
Based on my student performances, I have learned and reflected on my own teaching. I felt that specifically in this unit, I did a good job relating and making connections between genetics and their math class (ratios, probability, proportions, etc.). As a teacher, I firmly believe that if students make connections between the new concepts they are learning and something they already know or feel comfortable with, they are more likely to succeed and remember the new concepts. Based on my student performances, I can see that the students made good connections between meiosis and how it relates to genetics. Therefore, I feel that I did a good job having students relate the concept of meiosis, first to genetics, and then how genetics affects their own life. I found that whenever students had a chance to have a class discussion based on their family and genetics, they were very invovled and interested. I used this to my advantage and tried to relate concepts to the students' own life and family as much as I could.
Something that I would do differently next time would be to have the students extent beyond the original informal assessment. After flipping coins and creating their alien, I would create an extension project, that would invovle the students pairing up and having their aliens mate and produce offspring. This would be especially fitting for an honors level class, or as an enrichment activity. The students would be responsibly for showing the possible gametes of each alien, the punnet squares for each trait, and producing a model of the alien offspring. I feel that this will further reinforce the concepts and objectives presented, as well as give students a chance to practice and show their understanding of the concepts.
Why provide enrichment just for honors sections?
I would not improve the assessment instruments, instructions, or design. Both the informal and formal assessment that directly related to the objectives and activities we completed in class. The class average on the formal assessment displays an overall high level of understanding of the concepts presented. The one thing that I might add to the informal assessment, would be a portion of self-assessment, where the students are responsible for monitoring their own learning.
Interesting. I can't remember an assessment that I developed that I was satisfied with the first time I used it. I suggest that you be more reflective about you teaching so that you can recognize potential concepts that students struggle with. This topic is especially challenging because it is very easy to "go through the motions" without understanding the key ideas. As long as you have students scoring 3/20 on an assignment, it is worth looking at the lesson critically to determine how you can improve your teaching the next year.
Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Dania Schnell
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
There are multiple ways that I assess my student's understanding and learning. I feel that a teacher needs to have various ways of assessing students in order to know what needs to be retaught and reviewed. As a teacher, I need to know exactly what my students are understanding on a subject I am teaching, so I can adjust my lesson plans accordingly. I use a variety of formal and informal assessments:
1) Exit Slips - This is a half sheet of paper that I pass out to students with about 10 minutes left of class. Not only is this a good way to close class, but I get to collect these half sheets of paper and assess my student's understanding of the concepts and topics we learned in class. The half slips generally have a couple questions on them, and one application or critical thinking question related to what we learned in class. These slips are not usually graded. If the slips they are, it is usually a class participation grade for the day. In order for students to leave class when the bell rings, the exit slip must be completed and returned to me. I like using this type of assessment because I can quickly glance at these exit slips, and determine what my students are understanding well, and what may need to be reviewed or retaught. I can also spot individual students who may be having trouble with a concept, and offer extra help. The exit slips are returned back to them promptly, usually by the next class so that the students also know if they are or are not understanding a concept.
2) Class Discussion/Questioning - Another informal way I assess student learning is during class discussions, class brainstorming, and class questioning activities. The way that I run my class discussions/questioning is that I usually randomly call on students. This way, every student must be paying attention and ready to participate. If they student is struggling, I give them sufficient wait time to think about the question. If they are still struggling, I try to re-phrase the question, or ask a more simple question to get them to come to the correct answer. Just by having a brief 10-15 minute class discussion, I am able to assess how much the class understands, or how much the class already knows about a topic/concept. I am also able to pinpoint those individual students who are struggling and may need extra help.
3) Homework - Another informal assessment that I use often, is to collect homework, and not only check it for completion and effort, but check it for understanding of the concept. If I feel like I need to assess my student's understanding on a topic/concept, I generally collect the homework and really analyze student responses and try to pinpoint any misconceptions the students might have.
4) In Class Activities/Labs - In class activities and labs give me a chance to assess student understanding in a practical, hands on way. Some students can show their understanding of a concept better through hand on experiments or activities. This is the very reason why I always try to have multiple class activities/labs that address the concepts I am trying to teach. If the students are working in groups, I am able to walk around the classroom, listen to the student discussion, guide students to understanding, and correct any misconceptions students are having about the concept.
5) Tests and quizzes - Formal assessments such as tests and quizzes, give me an overall class understanding at the end of a unit. Tests and quizzes give me a statistical analysis of my classroom and each individual student.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic.
Concepts I am trying to assess in these assignments: The following are the individual concepts I wish to assess in the following informal and formal assessments. These assessments are apart a unit on Mendel and Meiosis. I want students to understand the difference between recessive and dominant traits. Also students need to be able to state the genotype of an organism, the phenotype of an organism, and the difference between the two. Students are introduced in this informal assessment to the concept of sex determination, and how the male ultimately determines the sex of the offspring. The concept of incomplete dominance is introduced and demonstrated in the traits of antennas, eye color, and body color. Student have had practice with punnet squares and must answer the "Wrapping it Up" questions by drawing out carious punnet squares and explaining them. Students use coin flipping and the concept of probability to answer follow up questions.
What ideas to students need to understand before they can address the topics described above?
What misconceptions are students likely to have about these topics?- The following topics may cause student misconceptions:
- Punnet squares and how to complete them
- The difference between monohybrid and dihybrid.
- The difference between phenotype vs. genotype.
- Nature vs. Nurture in Natural Selection
What are the specific misconceptions that you anticipated? caw?
What phenomena and representations help students understand these topics?RI Science Teachers LS3 p2
RI Science Teachers LS3 (9-11) - 7
RI Science Teachers - LS3 (Ext) - 7
LS3 (9-11) - 7 - Students demonstrate an understanding of Natural Selection/ evolution by…
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
Design: The way this activity is designed, is to have students apply what they have learned already about Mendel, genotype vs. phenotype, dominant vs. recessive, punnet squares, and probability. They have learned about these concepts previously in class and in the PowerPoint notes. They were given all the necessary information to succeed during this informal assessment, they just needed to apply that knowledge. The activity is also designed to have the students do something kinetically. I believe that when you have a 90 minute class period, it is essential to let the students do something physically, like in this example, flip coins.
Instructions: The instructions for each worksheet are clearly described on each worksheet. To make sure students understood what they were doing, we did the first trait/coin flip together, which was "face shape". I had a student read each step aloud to the class, as I followed the directions and flipped the coin, and recorded my results on my data table, which was drawn on the white board. I made sure that the students not only understood the instructions, but that I modeled one trial to the students before they started. I think that modeling, as well as reading instructions aloud with my class, help my students to succeed and complete the activity in a timely manner. I use this technique very often with in-class activities and labs. The students had time in class to flip the coins and begin the "Wrapping It Up!" packet, which they were to finish for homework.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
Description: This is the test I created for Chapter 10: Mendel and Meiosis.
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
Where are your worked out answers to the questions at the end of the Mendalian activity and quiz?
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
Answer Key:
Assessment Features and Evaluation Criteria:
This assignment had a couple of parts that the students had to hand in. In total there were 3 parts, with the point values as follows:
TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS = 20
The informal assessment features include the use of a data table for students to record their coin flipping results. The features also include an art/design portion where the students have to illustrate or model their alien that they have created from gathering the coin flipping data. Many students were very creative and turned in huge alien posters, 3D clay/Styrofoam alien models, and cartoon aliens. This feature allowed students to show their creative side because I gave them the freedom to do whatever, as long as they represented all the alien traits. The students seemed to enjoy this feature of the assessment most. The final feature of the project (the "Wrapping It Up" packet) had students explaining the dominant and recessive trait, calculating the probability of certain outcomes, and creating monohybrid and dihybrid crosses.
The evaluation criteria that I used was an answer key (see below). The students got all the possible points on The Coin Flip Sheet and the Alien Drawing/Model, as long as it was completed and turned in on time. The "Wrapping It Up" packet was graded not only on completion, but also whether the students answered the questions correctly. Points were taken off for incorrect answers for this portion.
Depths of Knowledge: The Depths of Knowledge that are addressed in this assessment are Level 1: Recall and Reproduction, Level 2: Skills and Concept, and Level 3: Strategic Thinking. I especially feel that the "Wrapping It Up" packet has students strategically thinking. Questions 11-17 present the students with scenarios where they must take what they have learned so far, and not only apply it, but extent it farther to concepts that have no yet been addressed yet. In this "Wrapping It Up" packet, the students are being presented with recall/reproduction questions first, then skills/concept questions where they have to apply the skills and knowledge they have learned thus far, and finally strategic thinking questions at the end. This is done purposely to help scaffold the student's learning and help them reach and achieve high level thinking.
Scientifc Practice Related to Inquiry: When developing this informal assessment, I kept in mind the concept of inquiry. To help me do this, I followed the NECAP Guidelines for the Development of Inquiry Tasks. I found that this really helped me to stay on task in respect to inquiry based learning. This informal assessment as a whole directly relates to the NECAP Guidelines and ideas for inquiry tasks. For example, this assessment has students actively conducting investigations on probability, traits and alleles, sex determination of an organism. Before this activity, students have never introduced to the idea of sex determination. In fact, during an informal class discussion that I did to assess students' prior knowledge on these concepts, students did not know how the sex of an organism was determined, and did not know that the male determines the sex, and why this is so. This assessment has them investigate this concept of sex determination, come to conclusion the male determines the sex of the offspring, and why this is true. Students must analyze and collect their own data, which is another inquiry task. After doing so, students then have to make and describe observations, reguarding their data and why they recieved the results they did. Students then must apply this knowledge to various other senarios, to show their understanding of the concept.
Wasn't the Mendelian investigation developed/adapted by Mickey? If so, it seems strange to say you used the NECAP guidelines when developing this assessment. It is interesting that you consider this Punnet square lab as an investigation, since there is very little for students to "design" in this investigation. Do you think students remember much beyond flipping the coins? I agree that the "Wrapping Up" questions are a good way to gauge critical thinking, but your key suggests you have just basic expectations for students' answers.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
Schnell - High Performing Assessment
Schnell - Average Performing Assessment
Schnell - Low Performing Assessment
10 For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
The formal assessment addresses all the concepts described in my answer to questions 4. The concepts and how they were addressed specifically in the formal assessment are as follows:
The formal assessment was designed to assess the students on the following Depths of Knowledge: Level 1: Recall and Reproduction, Level 2: Skills and Concept, and Level 3: Strategic Thinking. To do this, the assessment has different types of questions (multiple choice, matching, short answer, examining a table with data, and critical thinking questions). Because the assessment has a variety of questions, the students are assessed on these three Depths of Knowledge.
Learning Differences, Special Needs, Modifications, and Accommodations: Although I do not have any students with IEP's or special needs in my classroom, I do have a couple students with lower reading levels. To accommodate for this, if the student is having difficultly, I will read the question aloud to them, rephrase it if necessary, and/or underline key words in the question. I have found through experience that these techniques seem to help those students that are struggling. Also, I have some students that seem to take very long to take tests. A couple of my students sometimes need extra time to complete the test, which is completely fine. I do not want to rush any student. These students usually come after school or during advisory to complete their test. Also, I created two different versions of the test, with the questions rearranged, to eliminate cheating and to hold students accountable for their own learning.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
Using both informal and formal assessments help me learn about what my students understand about certain concepts. After correcting the informal assessment, I was able to see any misconceptions about the concept and specifically where some students were struggling. For example, after correcting the informal assessment, I was able to see that my students were having difficultly understanding the concept of sex determination. This is specifically seen in the student responses to question #11. To be honest, because this was the inquiry portion of this assessment, I was not surprised that some of the students did not understand this concept. About half of the class came to the conclusion that the father determines the sex of the offspring, because he can contribute either an X or Y to the gamete cell during meiosis, while the female can only contribute an X chromosome because she is XX. The other half of the class had either the complete wrong idea of why the father determines the sex, or just did not answer that question at all. As a teacher, it is my responsibilty to locate areas where students are struggling and reteach/review this information. Therefore, next class I made sure to clarify this specific topic and gave students a chance to ask questions about it. This is the whole idea behind informal assessments.
Good answer.
Using the formal assessment I was able to see that many students were struggling with setting up, completing, understanding, and applying dihybrid crosses to solve genetic senarioes. This was specifically seen in the last question, the critical thinking question, as well as the dihybrid cross, that was already set up and the students had to fill in. This is something that my students still need to learn.
Again using the formal assessment, I was able to see that many students understand the concept of haploid vs. diploid cells, which is a subtopic of miesois. Students demonstrated an overall high level of understanding of the concept of meiosis. Many students correctly answered questions about the phases of meiosis, gametes vs. body cells, and why meiosis maintains a constant number of chromosomes within a species. The types of questions the students answered correctly reguarding this concept were multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions. Understanding and explaining the concept of meiosis and how it relates to genetics, is an example of something my students can do now, that they could not do before.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
Characteristic - Gender
Overall Class Data = 26 Total Students: (out of a possible 45 pts)
Mean - 36.7 (81.6%)
High score - 47
Low score - 17
Female Class Data = 10 Female Students
Mean - 36.2 (80.4%)
High score - 45
Low score - 17
Male Class Data = 16 Total Students
Mean - 37 (82.0%)
High score - 47
Low score - 22
I was very interested to see if gender was a factor in this assessment. The overall class average was 81.6%. The female students average grade was a 80.4% and the male students average grade was a 82.0%. Because the female and male average grades are extremely close to the class average and not far apart from each other, I can pretty much conclude, that when it comes to specific assessment, no one specific gender group did significantly better than the other. In fact the female and male averages are almost exactly the same as the overall class average.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
One way that I involved students in self-assessment can be found in the "Wrapping It Up" packet. The students have to share their data with other students, as well as collect data from two other students and record their information. During this, I told students to assess their data and answers they have gathered so far. I told students they need to compare their data with other students data, and make sure they are completing the assessment correctly.
I do think that incorporating self-assessment more often into my lesson plans is something that I could improve upon. I believe that it is so important to hold students accountable for their own work and learning. By incorporating self-assessment and more self-monitoring strategies into my lesson plans, I can hold students more accountable for their own learning and success. Having students complete self-assessments, teaches students the skills they need to succeed not only in other subjects in school, but outside school and in life in general.
Self assessment is also an important skill related to metacognition.
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
The following are the objectives for the informal assessment, as well as the formal assessment:
After anaylzing the multiple informal assessments and the formal assessment for this unit, I feel very confident that my students understand the concepts presents, because they have accomplished all the above objectives. The unit was designed to have multiple activities that present, explain, and have the students show their understanding of each concept. Therefore, the students have had multiple activities that address each concept. The students have seen each concept explained or presented in multiple ways to differentiate instruction and ensure that every student learns the material. Overall, I feel that the assessments show that my students have learned and accomplished the above objectives. My objectives and student learning directly relate to each other.
Based on my student performances, I have learned and reflected on my own teaching. I felt that specifically in this unit, I did a good job relating and making connections between genetics and their math class (ratios, probability, proportions, etc.). As a teacher, I firmly believe that if students make connections between the new concepts they are learning and something they already know or feel comfortable with, they are more likely to succeed and remember the new concepts. Based on my student performances, I can see that the students made good connections between meiosis and how it relates to genetics. Therefore, I feel that I did a good job having students relate the concept of meiosis, first to genetics, and then how genetics affects their own life. I found that whenever students had a chance to have a class discussion based on their family and genetics, they were very invovled and interested. I used this to my advantage and tried to relate concepts to the students' own life and family as much as I could.
Something that I would do differently next time would be to have the students extent beyond the original informal assessment. After flipping coins and creating their alien, I would create an extension project, that would invovle the students pairing up and having their aliens mate and produce offspring. This would be especially fitting for an honors level class, or as an enrichment activity. The students would be responsibly for showing the possible gametes of each alien, the punnet squares for each trait, and producing a model of the alien offspring. I feel that this will further reinforce the concepts and objectives presented, as well as give students a chance to practice and show their understanding of the concepts.
Why provide enrichment just for honors sections?
I would not improve the assessment instruments, instructions, or design. Both the informal and formal assessment that directly related to the objectives and activities we completed in class. The class average on the formal assessment displays an overall high level of understanding of the concepts presented. The one thing that I might add to the informal assessment, would be a portion of self-assessment, where the students are responsible for monitoring their own learning.
Interesting. I can't remember an assessment that I developed that I was satisfied with the first time I used it. I suggest that you be more reflective about you teaching so that you can recognize potential concepts that students struggle with. This topic is especially challenging because it is very easy to "go through the motions" without understanding the key ideas. As long as you have students scoring 3/20 on an assignment, it is worth looking at the lesson critically to determine how you can improve your teaching the next year.